beverage alcohol.
“ Kathie’ s first-hand knowledge of this is invaluable as she brings this to her leadership role on the board,” Insley added.
Montgomery ABS Communications Manager Jocelyn Rawat, Director Kathie Durbin and Liquor Store Clerk Cruz Guerrero-Toledo.
This early experience helped as she progressed into Executive Director of the Montgomery County Restaurant Association, where she helped develop certified alcohol beverage server training for the Restaurant Association of Maryland Hospitality.
Having already contributed greatly to Maryland’ s on-premise industry, Durbin then went back to school to study social work. Specifically, she wanted to help those suffering from substance abuse, foreshadowing the large role she would later play in protecting public safety as ABS Director.
In 2002, she joined the ABS, creating the organization’ s first community outreach manager. She not only applied for the position but also created its funding through successful grant requests. Once hired, she worked to improve how the ABS interacted with its business and customer community, including improved server training for the sake of protecting the public.
Durbin’ s career continued to progress in 2005, when she accepted the position of ABS Division Chief of Licensure, Regulation and Education. Here, she supervised alcohol licensure, policy, education, legislative initiatives and compliance. She held this role for the next 15 years, advocating for laws that supported the county’ s hospitality businesses.
In May 2021, Durbin was confirmed as the new Director of ABS, after serving as Acting Director for four months. A lifelong resident of the county where she rose through the ranks— from bartender to ABS Director— Durbin became the first woman to lead the department.
“ It’ s been a great journey,” she says.“ It’ s interesting dynamics because I’ ve worked with lots of different perspectives in the alcohol industry.”
“ I still feel like I’ m working in the hospitality industry, even now that I’ m in the government,” she adds.
In addition to its regulatory role, ABS is the wholesaler of beer, wine and spirits in the county, and operates several dozen retail stores. The organization employs about 500 staff in retail, warehousing, outreach and community engagement.
Durbin also brings her deep and diverse industry background to NABCA, where she first joined the board the same year she took over at ABS. Five years later, she is set to become Chair of the NABCA Board of Directors.
“ Kathie’ s breadth and wealth of experience in beverage alcohol spans public health to business development,” says Neal Insley, NABCA president and CEO, in a press release.“ These are two important aspects of a control system that our board and their agencies manage regularly as they help the hospitality businesses in their communities thrive by communicating proper safeguards, regulation and policy for selling
NAVIGATING THE INDUSTRY
From Covid−19 to trade tariffs to changing consumer preferences— especially among Gen Z— there have been no shortage of recent challenges for the alcohol business.
“ You never know it all,” Durbin reflects.“ There’ s always something happening in this industry. You have to have an open mind and sit at the table with other people, and always keep learning, because this industry is always moving. There is a cyclone around us that is always moving.”
When it comes to navigating these ever-changing challenges in Montgomery County, Durbin focuses on what she calls the four Cs: culture, collaboration, communication and customer service.
“ Words matter, and what we put behind them matters as well,” Durbin says.
She sees all this as adding up to a partnership where she co-creates a business-friendly environment with licensees. For example, she points to a successful push years ago to change legislation so that producers could self-distribute within the area’ s system.
Unsurprisingly, this program picked up during the pandemic, giving producers a convenient path to customers as on-premise business shut down.
“ It moved quickly,” Durbin recalls.“ We were able to take small listings from local producers from 70,000 to over 13 million. Many of these local businesses, especially distilleries, work well in our stores. It’ s been really fun working with local businesses and watching them grow. We helped keep these businesses in business, especially during the pandemic.”
Another area Durbin where takes pride at the ABS is her loss-prevention program.“ One of my priorities coming in was to beef up our self-auditing,” she explains.“ We’ re a government-run department; we should be digging deep for cost savings and preventing theft.”
This included enhancing the organization’ s inventory controls.
12 StateWays • Summer 2025 www. stateways. com